Severnbank works 1990s…

I came across these old prints whilst looking for something else, taken in the early 1990s on my APS camera, they show an unusual daylight sighting of the Pi shunter at Severnbank…

It was unusual to see the shunter, even just stabled, during daylight hours as rail traffic was moved at night and the Sentinel was usually kept in the secure compound in the heart of the works. However on this occasion I caught an exciting glimpse from the footpath that ran along one of the edges of the yard area, I remember rushing home for the camera, such was the magnitude of the occasion.

Perhaps it was childhood memories of the industrial diesel on Wapping Wharf, perhaps more simply a change from the parade of blue and grey 108s I saw past the bottom of my garden, but I have always found industrial locomotives of great fascination. Their unfamiliar forms have over the years become my friends and today I know more about their manufacturers than I probably do about the LNER (as a GWR man!). Back then this was just a diesel, but it’s unfamiliar almost alien lines and bright paint scheme were enchanting, even without movement.

This is Kohlenbachbrücke, my latest cameo ‘HiFi-micro’ layout. This time with a European theme and in HO, but that hasn’t stopped it playing host to these OO gauge industrial models from my collection.

Our ‘toy trains’ should tell a story, a mix of play and memory, perhaps using the medium to express emotions otherwise too difficult to share, perhaps more simply a calming place from a simpler time. I love to see the possibility in a scene, to reimagine it in a different space. I hope you have enjoyed today’s efforts, I certainly have. Until next time, more soon…

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